The Karate Kid

23 January 2015

We were proud to see Dan Johnson (far right), a UK based Electrical Engineer, bring home a third place medal for Karateform and technique (or ‘kata’) in his category at the 2014 WTKA Unified World Championships. He is understandably “well chuffed” with third place, performing a first black belt kata.

In the first round of fighting (or ‘kumite’) Dan put up a good fight but lost 6-4 to an Italian on home turf. His opponent went on to win the final, so Dan was happy. The Italian was not so happy when Dan knocked the wind out of his sails with the flat of his foot, or when he put him on his backside!!!

Dan is now tenth in the world in the Open Grade Heavy Weight category!

Dan’s squad of 13 took home 11 medals, including 6 world champion titles; they also got through to the finals and came fourth for senior grade men’s kata. As he says, “not bad for a little club in Essex!“